Training Log Archive: kissy

Day 5 of France 5-Days. Long distance at Risoul.

Last day...not best day. It was fine, pretty on par with the last few days. Slightly uninspired course setting on very steep hills. I did a little more contouring today just because I couldn't stomach running down, just to run back up again at my control.

I ended up 26th out of 66, and I'm happy with that. I never got totally lost and I was never DFL, so I met my two goals for this trip.

I also met the most important goal...HAVE FUN! Traveling with Brooke, Jan, and Charlie was a blast. We all got along great, we ate wonderful food and had plenty of good wine. This trip was relaxing, exciting, and fun. And we're already planning our next trip to the Older Dash!

C • Having fun 1

Day 4 of France 5-Day. Middle Day at Risoul.

The pre-event information said the climb would b 90m. When I turned over my map, it said 155m! I guess the first information was more accurate, thank goodness.

Today was a better day than yesterday. Even though I forgot my glasses, I still found everything pretty much straight on. Again, it was a matter of the first few controls were up and up, a few across, and then down and down. I guess there's not much more you can do on such a steep slope.

Tomorrow is a chase start, so we're waiting for final results so we can figure out our start times. Charlie and I will take a 20 minute chairlift ride and then still have another 1.7 km and 80m of climb. I think we will be on top of the world by then!

Day 3 of France 5-day. Long Distance at Vars - Les Claux.

Today might have been the most brutal day. A long distance course on the side of a mountain. We were either going up or down on very steep slopes. The navigation wasn't particularly difficult. It reminded me of Laramie Range because it was completely open and you could look across the slope and pick out the next point that you needed to get to. Then, you just had to get there! After the first 6 controls of going up, up, up, it was nice to finally go down for the next 7 controls. I didn't feel particularly spritely -- my ribs still hurt and my quads were still sore from our walk down the ski slope the other day.

I'm happy that tomorrow is a middle day.

With a forecast of heavy rain and winds, today's races were postponed until tomorrow, the originally-scheduled rest day. That worked well for me since I fell during the sprint on Sunday and bruised a muscle on my right side. It's been a little painful to take deep breaths (which I definitely felt during yesterday's race) and turning while I'm sleeping. I will benefit from a rest day today.

Day 2 at French 5-Day. Middle distance at Peyrol - Vars.

Another physically tough course. On one 300m leg, I had to climb 13 5m contour lines! I was basically clawing my way up the hill. And then I had to keep climbing a little to get to my next control!

I did much better in the placings for the day than I thought I would, but I guess everyone had their own troubles.

We had to take a chairlift to the top of the ski hill where the arena, start and finish were. It was a beautiful view on the way up:



The organizers said that only people with young children, injured people, and people over 60 could take the chairlift back down. Since we were mostly none of those things, we all walked down, which turned out to be almost as brutal as being on the course. Over an hour of 2+ miles pretty much straight down, we made it to the bottom. I'll be feeling that in my quads, for sure!

Event: O'France 2019
 

Day 1 French 5-Day. Sprint at Mont-Dauphin

First day of the French meet. It was fun to see more Americans. I finally met Miss Sophie in person...she was not impressed. And while I see Inara at most of the QOC events, she was equally not impressed. But, it was nice to see the girls' parents, especially Sam and Ross, whom I have not seen in far too long. Also, it was a beautiful day, if a tad too hot.

My run today was excellent! I just had some small hesitations out of the start, when I was trying to understand the map. I saw all of these walls on my map, but there was nothing in front of me. Then I realized that everything was *down* and that I had to get down into the labyrinth. Once I did that, it was a blast! There was one control where I did not understand the control description and the control could have been down in the maze or up on a bridge above the maze. I just guessed on below and was right! Several people guessed above and were less happy.

After the event, we came back to the house and watched the glorious US women's soccer team earn their fourth star. So wonderful.